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QUOTE OF THE DAY
— Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, about how the Trump administration’s policies are affecting funds earmarked for states.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Donald Trump and Elon Musk confound Susan Collins’ pledge to bring money to Maine. After Congress passed a bill to avoid a shutdown but cut state earmarks, Collins’ website got a subtle edit.
Potential cuts to MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, threaten care for children and nursing home residents. “There’s no room to absorb additional costs” in Maine’s health care system, according to a health care executive.
As Penobscot County’s HIV cases grow, attacks on prevention could worsen the outbreak. Maine lawmakers weigh a bill requiring one-for-one syringe exchanges as the Trump administration considers shutting down the CDC’s HIV prevention division.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
- Trump wants ‘full throated apology’ from Mills
- Janet Mills warns lawmakers of ‘hard decisions ahead’ after signing $11.3B budget
- February was one of the best months for Maine home sales since 2000
- Voters to decide fate of Bradley elementary school
- Autopsy: Etna man died from multiple stab wounds
- Pedestrian seriously injured in Dixmont hit-and-run
- Watch: ‘Domesticity’ wins Maine spelling bee for Orland 7th-grader
- Man found dead after Harpswell fire has been identified
- Maine’s The Lost Kitchen is now accepting your postcards for reservations
- Wrong-way driver killed in tractor-trailer collision on Maine highway
- Noble senior Jamier Rose named Maine’s Gatorade Boys Player of the Year
- UMaine hockey fans turn Boston arena into ‘Alfond South’
- UMaine hockey co-captain delivers a remarkable season comeback
- Photos: UMaine beats UConn for 1st Hockey East title in 2 decades
- Cooper Flagg scores 18 to help Duke over Baylor into Sweet 16
- Photos: See how Cooper Flagg went from small town Maine to the center of March Madness
MAINE IN PICTURES

For more photos tracking Flagg’s journey from Newport to the center of March Madness, don’t miss our photo story.
FROM THE OPINION PAGES

“Right now, what we need more than anything is to pause, listen, and care for each other, even when we disagree.”
LIFE IN MAINE
UMaine’s newly crowned Hockey East champion men’s hockey team will open the 16-team NCAA Tournament on Friday as a No. 1 seed. The Black Bears were selected Sunday afternoon as the third-best team in the country and will take on No. 13 Penn State.
New Allagash Dash joins statewide downriver series. Dedicated to Allagash legend Tylor Kelly, the 15-mile race will be the first canoe race in the area for at least a decade, according to its organizers.
When hunting and fishing become celebrity spectacles. “Social media’s presence in the outdoor space has birthed a new era that is creeping ever-closer to threatening heritage, tradition, fair chase and ethics,” Outdoors contributor Chris Sargent writes.




